The
Military Valor Roll of Honor Act (formerly HR 3769) died when the
110th Congress adjourned without moving the Bill forward. On
January 22, 2009, Congressman John Salazar and 26 other members of
the House introduced the same Bill in the Current (111th)
Congress. The new Bill is HR 666 but the language is the same as
the old Bill. This time we hope to see it successfully passed.

"I am deeply distressed to hear that there are some
individuals who would stoop so low as to masquerade as
recipients of medals that our nation awards to those who have
served with valor in the military. While I realize that
creating a database of those who have received medals of valor
would be a huge undertaking for DoD, something must be done to
curb this abuse. We must protect the legacy of America's
heroes."SEN. DANIEL AKAKA, D-Hawaii, Armed
Services, Veterans Affairs Chairman

The Military Roll of Valor Act

When American Doughboys returned from their
bitter but victorious battles to liberate France in World War I
their commander General John J. Pershing noted, "Time shall
not dim the glory of their deeds." Following the end of a
second World War and while American soldiers continued their
valiant service in Vietnam, in the 1960s General Pershing's words
were inscribed at the entrance to a new football stadium in
Philadelphia, birthplace of our nation. That stadium was
officially named "Veterans Stadium" by the Philadelphia
City Council to honor the memory of the veterans of all wars.

Four decades later the Philadelphia Eagles
have moved on to newer facilities, Veterans Stadium stands empty,
and the words of General Pershing are seldom read. Though time can
not dim the glory of the deeds of those who have served to gain
and preserve our freedom, time certainly has dimmed the
remembrance of those deeds and the men and women who sacrificially
made them.

In
2001 Monty McDaniel watched the movie "Saving Private
Ryan" sparking thoughts of his uncle, Staff Sergeant Paul
Alexander, who was killed fighting during the Normandy Invasion.
Seeking out his uncle's grave Online he noted the letters
"DSC." Further research revealed those letters stood for
"Distinguished Service Cross," the highest award
presented by the U.S. Army and second only to the Medal of Honor.
It was NEWS to Alexander's family, none of who knew of the young
soldier's great heroism at the time he lost his life in battle.
After persistent research that took nearly a year McDaniel at last
found the citation for his uncle's award in the National Archives
and the medal was presented posthumously--50 years late--to
Alexander's surviving brothers and sisters. Paul Alexander's
parents died in the 1990s never knowing their son was one of the
5,000 soldiers of World War II to receive this high honor.

A post-script to Alexander's story is that,
upon receiving his uncle's General Order authorizing award of the
DSC, McDaniel noted that the award had also been authorized for
one other soldier who was killed at about the same time in France.
He initiated a search for the surviving relatives of Staff
Sergeant Lawrence Gunderson, found them, and learned the stories
were almost identical. Gunderson's parents died never knowing of
their son's high honor, which was finally awarded to surviving
family members half-a-century late. When Senator Mark Dayton
presented the award in 2002 the "Courier News" wrote,
"They never received or knew that their son had been awarded
the Distinguished Service Cross. His family might never have known
had it not been for a man from Indiana, Monty McDaniel." In
both cases, the glory of the deeds of these brave warriors had not
been diminished--only forgotten.

While such true heroes ARE forgotten by the
nation they served while written records of their deeds are
gathering dust in the basement of a forgotten Washington, D.C.
archive, wannabe heroes capture the attention of others with
self-promotional false claims of service, sacrifice, and heroics.
Last month alone dozens of phony heroes emerged in press reports.
In Topeka, Kansas, Tim Debusk was charged with using a forged
citation to obtain distinctive Purple Heart license plates
identifying him as a wounded warrior of the Global War on
Terrorism. In Fort Worth, Texas, David McClanahan used false
records showing he had received two Silver Stars, multiple Purple
Hearts, and a bogus letter from the White House indicating he had
been nominated for the Medal of Honor in order to obtain
scholarships, bank loans, and speaking engagements. In Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, the man at the forefront of a major state-wide bid
for a $1 billion casino was exposed as a fraud who lied to a
Congressional subcommittee about being a hero at the Battle of Khe
Sanh--which occurred while he was still attending high school.
That individual, Glenn Marshall, was also touted in press reports
as the recipient of the Silver Star and five Purple Hearts. His
exposure and subsequent investigation revealed the man was also
hiding a 20-year old rape conviction.

On September 21, 2007, in Seattle, the
Department of Veterans Affairs announced charges against eight men
who falsified military records to award themselves medals and hero
status, some of which then used that status to receive Veterans
benefits. Their fraud, based upon forged discharge paperwork and
award citations, cost the U.S. Government $1.4 million dollars.
Among the eight was one man, a resident alien, whose records
showed he served and was wounded in World War II while a member of
the famed "Flying Tigers." In fact the man had never
even served in any branch of military service.

The fraud perpetrated by these and scores of
others recently exposed and publicized in media reports is
possible because of failures in steps to properly preserve the
history of the deeds of our Nation's TRUE warriors. Twenty-first
century technology and the ability to manufacture deeds of glory
has given us more heroes than has combat, while that same
technology has been largely ignored as the tool to properly
document the history that is real. In September 2007 when it was
revealed that as many as one in three records in the Library of
Congress' Veterans History Project involved claims to awards
never earned, the library's director of communications Mr. Matt
Raymond told MSNBC it "would be impossible" to check
proffered oral histories for the legitimacy of claimed awards. No
existing database has ever been assimilated to record the deeds of
those who have served so valiantly through America's wars. The
records do exist, in archived General Orders at NARA, on cards in
the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. and at Marine Corps Headquarters
in Quantico, Virginia. These documents preserve in fading ink and
on yellowing paper the "glory of the deeds" of true
heroes, men and women whose valor and sacrifice should never be
allowed to deteriorate on aging media or become lost in piles of
unarchived papers, to thereby become lost in history.
President John F. Kennedy noted one month before his death in
1963, "A nation reveals itself not only by the men it
produces but also by the men it honors, the men it
remembers."

Let us as a nation reveal ourselves as a
people that honors and remembers those who have given their best
to preserve our freedom, not just the generals and icons, but the
ordinary men who left everyday jobs to serve in defense of freedom
and, by their uncommon valor not only secured our freedom, but
recorded a legacy of valor to inspire generations in the future.

As webmaster for
HomeOfHeroes.com, my initial purpose when I launched this site in
1998 was to highlight the stories of Medal of Honor recipients, a
group of heroes who comprise fewer than 4,500 of the more than 40
million Americans who have served in uniform. In time, after
requests to expand, I undertook the daunting task of finding,
typing and making available citations for the awards second-only
to the Medal of Honor: The Distinguished Service Cross, Navy
Cross, and Air Force Cross. When I began that in 2001 I believed
it was an impossible dream and, 7 years later have surprised
myself with the fact that I have digitized and posted the
citations for more than 18,000 of the 24,00 awards (and hope to
complete this in 2008). At times I became myself discouraged but,
in those moments I received emails such as the following simple,
but brief exchange from a former Marine in Boston, Massachusetts:

"Your
web site helped us get this done." What Ed Driscoll had done was to bring to the attention
of his community that the headstone at the grave of a fellow
Marine and personal friend made no mention of the fact that in the
moment of valor that cost him his life, John C. Calhoun had been
awarded the Navy's highest military honor, the Navy Cross. The
forgotten hero was remembered with new reverence on Veterans' Day
2005, and his headstone engraved with the text "Navy
Cross" to identify a forgotten hometown hero.

The successful passage in 2006 of
the Stolen Valor Act was a long-need step in protecting the
integrity of our military awards, prohibiting and providing penalties
for impersonating a decorated hero. That problem is severe and the Stolen
Valor Act has already proven to be a highly effective tool to
uncover fraud and phonies, but FAR WORSE is the fact that the REAL
HEROES, men and women who REALLY DID EARN high awards like the Silver
Star or highly-respected awards like the Purple Heart, have been
forgotten.

Try to find out what medals your
grandfather earned in World War II, or even to get the citation that
describes the heroic action that earned your father a Silver Star in
Korea or Vietnam, and you will understand rather quickly how poorly has
been preserved the records of our REAL heroes. Send a letter to the
National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis to get a copy of
your uncle's awards and citations for service in the Army or Air Force
in World War II or Korea and you will most likely get a letter in return
that "His records are not here, they may have burned in the 1973
fire."

Over the last five years I have
been able, through my own database, to help hundreds of families get
those citations, thanks to the time and effort I have put into building
my own awards database. (It would NOT have been humanly possible to do
so without the great prior work done by other independent historians
like the late Colonel Albert Gleim who started much of this and passed
away before completing what others considered impossible to do.) Like
Colonel Gleim, I am one person (who is not getting any younger), and
know that I too, will live out my own life before I can do all that
needs to be done. FURTHERMORE, it should NOT be the job of dedicated,
independent historians, to insure that the history of our heroes is
properly preserved.

The LEAST our Nation owes to those
who have served is to properly preserve for history, and for their
children and grandchildren, an accurate history of that veteran's
service, sacrifice and heroism.

In 2007 Congressman John Salazar,
who successfully fought to enact the Stolen Valor Act returned
with the logical follow-up legislation. He was joined in this by
Congressman Patrick Murphy (PA), the ONLY Iraqi War Veteran currently
serving in Congress. Their new BILL is titled:

The Military Roll of Valor Act

111TH
CONGRESS
1ST SESSION

H.
R.
666

To amend title 10, United
States Code, to require the establishment of a searchable
database containing the names and citations of members of the
Armed Forces, members of the United States merchant marine,
and civilians affiliated with the Armed Forces who have been
awarded the medal of honor or any other medal authorized by
Congress for the Armed Forces, the United States merchant
marine, or affiliated civilians.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMr. SALAZAR introduced the following bill;
Which was referred to the House Committee
on Armed Services

A BILL
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.This Act may be
cited as the ‘‘Military Valor Roll of Honor Act of 2007’’.

SEC. 2. MILITARY VALOR ROLL OF
HONOR.

(a)
ESTABLISHMENT.—Chapter 57 of title 10, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following new section:
§ 1135. Military Valor Roll of Honor

‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT
REQUIRED.—The
Secretary of Defense shall establish and maintain a database, to
be known as the ‘Military Valor Roll of Honor’, which shall
contain the names and citations of all members of the armed
forces, members of the United States merchant marine (including
the Army Transport Service and the Naval Transport Service), and
civilians affiliated with the armed forces who have been awarded
the medal of honor or any other medal authorized by Congress for
the armed forces, the United States merchant marine, or affiliated
civilians. The Military Valor Roll of Honor shall include the
names of those members recorded on the ‘Army, Navy, Air Force,
and Coast Guard Medal of Honor Roll’ maintained pursuant to
section 1560 of title 38.’’

‘‘(b) SOURCES
OF INFORMATION.—The
Secretary of Defense shall develop the Military Valor Roll of
Honor using the records of the military departments and such other
sources of information as the Secretary considers to be
appropriate and accurate. The Secretary of Homeland Security, with
respect to the Coast Guard, and the Secretary of Transportation,
with respect to the United States merchant marine, shall provide
the Secretary of Defense with information regarding the names and
citations of members of the Coast Guard and United States merchant
marine for inclusion in the Military Valor Roll of Honor.’’

‘‘(c) PUBLIC
AVAILABILITY.—The
Military Valor Roll of Honor shall be a searchable database and
available for public inspection.’’.

(b) CLERICAL
AMENDMENT.—The
table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by
adding at the end the following new item:
‘‘1135. Military Valor Roll of Honor.’’.

CURRENT STATUS:

HR 666 has been referred to the Subcommittee
on Military Personnel (Chaired by Representative Susan Davis of
California), of the House Committee on Armed Services
(Chaired by Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri.)

As of April 21, 2009, the Bill is Co-Sponsored
by 47 Members of Congress including: